{"id":761,"date":"2015-12-18T22:25:34","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T06:25:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=761"},"modified":"2015-12-18T22:25:34","modified_gmt":"2015-12-19T06:25:34","slug":"my-star-wars-experience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/?p=761","title":{"rendered":"My Star Wars Experience"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve been sick most of the week. \u00a0While I was working from home one of the days, I messaged my boss with the idea that the whole department should go and see Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a team building excursion. \u00a0He thought it a great idea, and bought 20 tickets for today’s 11AM showing.<\/p>\n

As I write this, it’s been hours since I watched the movie. \u00a0I’m still buzzing. \u00a0I need to talk about Star Wars, and let out some of these emotions.<\/p>\n

I’m not going to go into spoilers. \u00a0I’m not going to talk about the plot, or give anything away. \u00a0I’m mostly going to talk about what Star Wars means to me, and how I felt about the latest installment.<\/p>\n

I can remember seeing the original Star Wars, a little bit. \u00a0I think it was in a drive-in, and as young as I was, I slept through parts of it. \u00a0The only thing I really remember is that I thought the stormtroopers were scary.<\/p>\n

Later, I saw Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in the theater. \u00a0I remember those experiences well. \u00a0I remember playing with the toys, and wanting to be Luke Skywalker. \u00a0When I was young, I honestly didn’t have a lot of respect for Han Solo. \u00a0He was the guy that was in it for the money. \u00a0Luke’s ambitions were more noble.<\/p>\n

I eventually became a huge Star Wars fan. \u00a0The seeds were planted in my youth, which grew into a greater and greater appreciation over time. \u00a0In my mid twenties, my interest reached its pique. \u00a0That’s when I started playing on Star Wars MUSH<\/a>. \u00a0I stayed active there for most of a decade. \u00a0I spent years developing my\u00a0writing by collaborating in Star Wars fan fiction.<\/p>\n

I remained a steady fan until The Phantom Menace. \u00a0I went in with all of the excitement. \u00a0Honestly, I enjoyed the movie, because my enthusiasm overrode my critical thinking. \u00a0I remember leaving the theater smiling, with only a shadow of disappointment in what I’d just watched.<\/p>\n

At this point, I could start tearing the prequels apart. \u00a0I won’t, this time. \u00a0I will just say that as a huge fan, and someone that brings a lot of forgiveness to the movies, the prequels exhausted me. \u00a0My passion for Star Wars diminished. \u00a0I starting describing myself as someone that used to be a Star Wars fan.<\/p>\n

When I heard that Disney was going to make Episode VII, I suppressed my hope. \u00a0When I heard that J.J. Abrams was going to direct it, I became apprehensive. \u00a0I thought the new Star Trek movies were fun, but in my opinion, they weren’t true to the spirit of the originals. \u00a0Did I really want J.J. giving Star Wars the same treatment, and splattering it with lens flares?<\/p>\n

As the opening drew closer and closer, I stayed as far away from spoilers as I could. \u00a0I only watched the first trailer. \u00a0I avoided articles and YouTube videos that talked about the upcoming movie. \u00a0I wanted to go in with fresh eyes, and try to enjoy the movie on its own merits.<\/p>\n

To be honest, I may have done too good a job stamping down my hope. \u00a0Several friends kept commenting about counting down\u00a0the date, and I kept finding myself surprised at how close it was getting. \u00a0I didn’t keep a countdown. \u00a0I put the movie out of my mind, and the release date snuck up on me.<\/p>\n

The day finally arrived. \u00a0I went with my coworkers. \u00a0We found decent seats. \u00a0And for the first time in a long time, I watched a Star Wars movie for the first time.<\/p>\n

When I realized that what I was watching was an actual Star Wars movie, I grew a little teary eyed. \u00a0This was the kind of experience I’d hoped for with the prequels. \u00a0This was a movie that felt like Star Wars. \u00a0A movie that fit with the stories that had inspired me. \u00a0This new Star Wars movie did not demand justification or apologies from me.<\/p>\n

The movie finished, and I sat still for several moments, satisfied. \u00a0Then I got up and went back to work, my head buzzing with what I’d just seen.<\/p>\n

The Force Awakens was not flawless. \u00a0I think it should have ended about 5 minutes sooner than it did. \u00a0But it did made me feel something I hadn’t felt in over twenty years. \u00a0It was not a perfect movie, but it was a Star Wars movie. \u00a0And I can’t wait to see it again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve been sick most of the week. \u00a0While I was working from home one of the days, I messaged my boss with the idea that the whole department should go and see Star Wars: The Force Awakens as a team building excursion. \u00a0He thought it a great idea, and bought 20 tickets for today’s 11AM […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":762,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions\/762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/briancebuhl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}